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February 27, 2010
43 Illegal Immigrants Freed from Indonesian Detention by Fake Phone Call
A phony phone call allowed scores of illegal immigrants from Afghanistan and Turkey to walk away from police detention on a small island in eastern Indonesia, and the fugitives are believed to be already in Australia, police said on Friday.
The 43 immigrants were stranded on Sabu Island’s Mania Beach in East Nusa Tenggara in January and have since been in local district police custody.
But the province’s police chief, Brig. Gen Antonius Bambang Suedi, said they escaped after a man claiming to be a senior officer with the National Police’s immigration task force on Tuesday called the West Sabu district police chief and asked them to be released.
The person on the telephone, who later turned out to be an imposter, told West Sabu police chief Yoseph Kalasansius Dhosa to release the 43 illegal immigrants and allow them to leave for the provincial capital of Kupang, Suedi said.
He said he suspected the caller was part of a syndicate of people smugglers from West Nusa Tenggara that had secured a ship to transport the immigrants.
“We were conned by the syndicate, because later on, [the immigrants] got on the ship, and in the middle of the journey they changed direction to Sand Island, Australia,” he said.
The ship carrying the immigrants was not guarded by any police officers, so the group was able to escape easily, Suedi said, adding that the ship was now likely already in Australia.
Suedi said Dhosa would be questioned because he was specifically asked to hold the immigrants until the immigrant task force arrived to pick them up.
Meanwhile, the province’s law and human rights office chief, Rindang Napitupulu said the location of the immigrants remained unknown. The head of Sabu Raijua district, Thobias Uly, said the immigrants embarked for Kupang on Tuesday, but he did not know any details of the escape.
“All I know is they have departed to Kupang. If they are now already in Australia, I have no information about that at all,” he said. On Wednesday, five Afghans escaped from the provincial immigrants detention house in Kupang, though four had so far been recaptured. They had been on their way to East Timor.
Indonesia is increasingly being used as a stepping stone for illegal immigrants en route to Australia.
43 Illegal Immigrants Freed from Indonesian Detention by Fake Phone Call
A phony phone call allowed scores of illegal immigrants from Afghanistan and Turkey to walk away from police detention on a small island in eastern Indonesia, and the fugitives are believed to be already in Australia, police said on Friday.
The 43 immigrants were stranded on Sabu Island’s Mania Beach in East Nusa Tenggara in January and have since been in local district police custody.
But the province’s police chief, Brig. Gen Antonius Bambang Suedi, said they escaped after a man claiming to be a senior officer with the National Police’s immigration task force on Tuesday called the West Sabu district police chief and asked them to be released.
The person on the telephone, who later turned out to be an imposter, told West Sabu police chief Yoseph Kalasansius Dhosa to release the 43 illegal immigrants and allow them to leave for the provincial capital of Kupang, Suedi said.
He said he suspected the caller was part of a syndicate of people smugglers from West Nusa Tenggara that had secured a ship to transport the immigrants.
“We were conned by the syndicate, because later on, [the immigrants] got on the ship, and in the middle of the journey they changed direction to Sand Island, Australia,” he said.
The ship carrying the immigrants was not guarded by any police officers, so the group was able to escape easily, Suedi said, adding that the ship was now likely already in Australia.
Suedi said Dhosa would be questioned because he was specifically asked to hold the immigrants until the immigrant task force arrived to pick them up.
Meanwhile, the province’s law and human rights office chief, Rindang Napitupulu said the location of the immigrants remained unknown. The head of Sabu Raijua district, Thobias Uly, said the immigrants embarked for Kupang on Tuesday, but he did not know any details of the escape.
“All I know is they have departed to Kupang. If they are now already in Australia, I have no information about that at all,” he said. On Wednesday, five Afghans escaped from the provincial immigrants detention house in Kupang, though four had so far been recaptured. They had been on their way to East Timor.
Indonesia is increasingly being used as a stepping stone for illegal immigrants en route to Australia.
